Understand, Engage, and Sustain

by smartamarketing

If you want to understand, engage, and sustain, you’ll need to embrace three tenets of modern, Relational Marketing – listening, relationship-building, and empowerment.

Listening Real listening is one of the most powerful and often misunderstood elements of marketing and developing successful brands.

Relationship-building, as a process, is misunderstood by many marketers. Too often we confuse willingness to buy as evidence of a relationship. It’s not. Brands must earn the right to have meaningful relationships with their consumers, and that isn’t accomplished by special offers and personalisation alone. Like personal relationships, brand relationships are built on trust that is earned over multiple exchanges and eventually feels natural instead of contrived.

If you establish some intimacy with your customers—providing an on-going, intimate forum to dig deeper and share many of the facets of their different personas—you’re entitled to expect more of the relationship. .

Empowerment is the final, misunderstood tenet of new consumerism. Customers are most engaged when they realise that a brand is actively working towards helping them When you offer more than simply another product to them you’ll become “their brand.”